Winch Maintenance @ the Snow Goose
At or around 3pm this last Sunday about 20 of our members gathered at the Snow Goose Restaurant, to give and or receive wisdom, in the ancient art of winch maintenance. There was also Beer to drink!
The two key speakers were Vice Commodore, Bob Stinson (Noatak) and Mark Ward (Radiance)
Bob brought in the two Primary winches from Noatak (Standard - Barient 28's) as props and completely disassembled one of them. He emphasized the importance of moving slowly and keeping the sub assemblies in groups while cleaning to make the task of re-assembly much simpler. There was also alot of discussion about protecting the the different parts of the winch from each other (Galvanic Corrosion).
Mark walked us through the disassembly of a self tailing - Lewmar 16, comparing it to the Lewmar 40's and larger that he has on board. Mark completely went through ten of his winches last winter and had the drums re-chromed. Swing by Radiance on F float next spring and check them out! They really dressed up an already gorgeous boat. Mark put together some thoughts while going through his winches and offered these suggestions as a guide.
A few members offered suggestions about web sites with good information on this subject.
CnC Site - This link has lots of service manuals for Barient, Barlow and Lewmar winches.
Sailnet - This is a step by step walk through of a winch servicing.
Did I mention that we had Beer at this function?
Dave Summerfeldt
S/V Mirage